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A Fire of Turf
By Michael Fox
To please my heart and warm my feet
Near an open grate to find a seat
To watch a winter fire glow
And wonder where glittering sparks will go
To see a wood and grasslands bear,
to watch Celtic warriors stand and stare
Of days gone by, a distant past,
still the smell of turf will last
Ancestral time of toil and trouble
In a windy bog with lunch and shovel
As famine rage and winters storm,
rely on turf to keep you warm
Through cottage doors the scent pervades
A jug of milk, a bucket and spade
As hungers bite and dawns delight,
for every morn one must fight
Children cry and mothers sigh
Leaving in thousands and saying goodbye
On foreign shores to remember and cherish,
a distant land where so many perish
To dream of crossing the raging surf
and sit again near a fire of turf
with Dr Catherine Keena, Teagasc countryside management specialist
Look out for bluebells, forming a blue carpet under hedgerows and in old woodlands.
Our native bluebell has drooping flowers on one side of a gracefully arching stalk suiting bumblebees which land upside down to access the flower.
The introduced Spanish bluebell is paler and sturdier with flowers all around the stalk. The native Irish native bluebell hybridises with the Spanish bluebell, resulting in a new cross-bred species.
Both the Spanish bluebell and the new hybrid bluebell are very fertile and threaten our native bluebell. This highlights why planting flowers in the countryside is not good for our plants growing wild and not good for our native Irish biodiversity.
Your mistakes are your best teachers, whether your machine is threaded wrong, whether you split your wood when you were drilling it, whether your paint bled; like they are your best lessons, that’s how you actually learn
A microwave oven can be a breeding ground for bacteria. Spatters and splashes can be a food source for germs. Always cover food that is being re-heated to avoid the splashes.
Small morsels of food that stick to the door will burn and may cause a hole in the protective membrane.
Once this happens, damaging rays can escape. The only solution is a new microwave oven!
Once food has been heated, be on alert for hot centres, as the food is heated from the centre out.
A dog walker on the footpath today demanded we have to control our calves so they don’t chase her dog. pic.twitter.com/uwXqA00mfB
— Liz Webster (@LizWebsterLD) May 28, 2022
18 - The number of years since Waterford’s Ballyduff drama group were last crowned all-Ireland drama champions.
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